CVEvulnerability
CVE-2025-39756
5.5 MEDIUM
Official page ↗
- Status
- Modified
- Published
- 2025-09-11
- Last modified
- 2026-10-19
- Assigner
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
- CVSS 3.1 ([email protected])
- 5.5 MEDIUM — CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- Weaknesses
- CWE-401
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
fs: Prevent file descriptor table allocations exceeding INT_MAX
When sysctl_nr_open is set to a very high value (for example, 1073741816
as set by systemd), processes attempting to use file descriptors near
the limit can trigger massive memory allocation attempts that exceed
INT_MAX, resulting in a WARNING in mm/slub.c:
WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 44 at mm/slub.c:5027 __kvmalloc_node_noprof+0x21a/0x288
This happens because kvmalloc_array() and kvmalloc() check if the
requested size exceeds INT_MAX and emit a warning when the allocation is
not flagged with __GFP_NOWARN.
Specifically, when nr_open is set to 1073741816 (0x3ffffff8) and a
process calls dup2(oldfd, 1073741880), the kernel attempts to allocate:
- File descriptor array: 1073741880 * 8 bytes = 8,589,935,040 bytes
- Multiple bitmaps: ~400MB
- Total allocation size: > 8GB (exceeding INT_MAX = 2,147,483,647)
Reproducer:
1. Set /proc/sys/fs/nr_open to 1073741816:
# echo 1073741816 > /proc/sys/fs/nr_open
2. Run a program that uses a high file descriptor:
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/resource.h>
int main() {
struct rlimit rlim = {1073741824, 1073741824};
setrlimit(RLIMIT_NOFILE, &rlim);
dup2(2, 1073741880); // Triggers the warning
return 0;
}
3. Observe WARNING in dmesg at mm/slub.c:5027
systemd commit a8b627a introduced automatic bumping of fs.nr_open to the
maximum possible value. The rationale was that systems with memory
control groups (memcg) no longer need separate file descriptor limits
since memory is properly accounted. However, this change overlooked
that:
1. The kernel's allocation functions still enforce INT_MAX as a maximum
size regardless of memcg accounting
2. Programs and tests that legitimately test file descriptor limits can
inadvertently trigger massive allocations
3. The resulting allocations (>8GB) are impractical and will always fail
systemd's algorithm starts with INT_MAX and keeps halving the value
until the kernel accepts it. On most systems, this results in nr_open
being set to 1073741816 (0x3ffffff8), which is just under 1GB of file
descriptors.
While processes rarely use file descriptors near this limit in normal
operation, certain selftests (like
tools/testing/selftests/core/unshare_test.c) and programs that test file
descriptor limits can trigger this issue.
Fix this by adding a check in alloc_fdtable() to ensure the requested
allocation size does not exceed INT_MAX. This causes the operation to
fail with -EMFILE instead of triggering a kernel warning and avoids the
impractical >8GB memory allocation request.
Affected configurations
• linux linux kernel (>= 2.6.25 < 5.4.297)
• linux linux kernel (>= 5.5 < 5.10.241)
• linux linux kernel (>= 5.11 < 5.15.190)
• linux linux kernel (>= 5.16 < 6.1.149)
• linux linux kernel (>= 6.2 < 6.6.103)
• linux linux kernel (>= 6.7 < 6.12.43)
• linux linux kernel (>= 6.13 < 6.15.11)
• linux linux kernel (>= 6.16 < 6.16.2)
• debian debian linux 11.0
Related
Weakness · CWE (1)
- CWE-401 Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime weakness
References
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/04a2c4b4511d186b0fce685da21085a5d4acd370 Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/237e416eb62101f21b28c9e6e564d10efe1ecc6f Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/628fc28f42d979f36dbf75a6129ac7730e30c04e Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/749528086620f8012b83ae032a80f6ffa80c45cd Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9f61fa6a2a89a610120bc4e5d24379c667314b5c Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b4159c5a90c03f8acd3de345a7f5fc63b0909818 Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d4f9351243c17865a8cdbe6b3ccd09d0b13a7bcc Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/dfd1f4ea98c3bd3a03d12169b5b2daa1f0a3e4ae Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f95638a8f22eba307dceddf5aef9ae2326bbcf98 Patch
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/10/msg00007.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/10/msg00008.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
- https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-019113.html cert-portal.siemens.com
- https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-032379.html cert-portal.siemens.com
- https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-082556.html cert-portal.siemens.com
- https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-457936.html cert-portal.siemens.com